Lavrov: Russia Ready for Contacts With Georgia on Various Levels

Russia welcomes contacts with Georgia at the lawmakers’ level and is ready for contacts in other formats as well, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday.

Georgia cut diplomatic ties with Russia in 2008 over the Georgian aggression against South Ossetia. Members of the Georgian government who came into power in 2012 named normalization of ties with Russia as one of their top priorities. Currently, Russia-Georgia dialogue is maintained through the Geneva International Discussions framework, and regular meetings between Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin and Abashidze.

“As for the contacts between the lawmakers, we can only support it. Moreover, we are ready for contacts on other levels as well. We have a channel between the Russian Foreign Ministry and the Georgian prime minister for relations with Russia, Zurab Abashidze, and we are ready for other formats as well that will be acceptable for both parties,” Lavrov told reporters after a meeting with his Belgian counterpart Didier Reynders in Brussels.

He added that Russia and Georgia were neighbors and had a lot in common both in this day in age and the past.

On Tuesday, the chairman of Russian State Duma’s Committee for the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Leonid Kalashnikov, said that Duma lawmakers and their Georgian counterparts agreed on creating an informal Parliamentary Friendship Group.